MOHUA, NEW ZEALAND—Microscopic granules of sweet potato starch (kūmara) have been discovered with Asia-Pacific taro and Pacific yam (uwhi) at Triangle Flat, a site located on the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, according to an RNZ report. Researchers from the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka determined that the Māori cultivated these crops as early as A.D. 1290 to 1385. “The first people who came here, came here to garden as well as to hunt things and they demonstrated from the outset that they were really sophisticated gardeners and they continued to be sophisticated gardeners over time,” said archaeologist Ian Barber. It had been previously suggested that the first people to arrive in the islands had been hunter-gatherers who relied on hunting moa and seals. Barber explained that the weather in the area would have been cool, requiring the early farmers to experiment with growing different plants. “So they cut their teeth on all the crops, kūmara is the one that outperforms and becomes the big deal,” he concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity. To read about sweet potato cultivation elsewhere in the Pacific, go to “Off the Grid: The Hawaiian Fishing Village of Lapakahi.”
